Newburgh City Council “deeply concerned” Horizons School might be closed

Friday

Apr 19, 2013 at 5:32 PMApr 19, 2013 at 5:42 PM

Michael Randall

CITY OF NEWBURGH — The City Council says it is “deeply concerned” that the Newburgh school board might close Horizons on the Hudson Magnet School on Montgomery Street.In a letter to the school board dated Thursday, Mayor Judy Kennedy and the council pleaded with the board to let Horizons “remain where it is.”Horizons is one of three elementary schools the board is considering closing because of an $8.6 million budget gap. The others are Balmville Communications and Media Center in the Town of Newburgh and Vails Gate High Tech Magnet School in New Windsor.The board slashed $5.3 million from next year’s budget at a meeting Thursday night, but postponed a decision on which school to close.The letter, signed by all five members of the often-divided council, noted there has been a school on the same Montgomery Street site since 1796.They called Horizons “an anchor in our East End historic district and a reminder of a tradition of centrally located education that has survived the challenges of more than two centuries, including Urban Renewal.”Urban renewal refers to the removal of all buildings east of Montgomery Street to the Hudson River that took place starting in the late 1960s, in what turned out to be an ill-fated attempt to kickstart economic development in the city.The council also said it is concerned that most of the schools the district has closed recently have been in the “economically challenged” city, where most of the population is black or Hispanic.mrandall@th-record.com